


I'm Here

by littlemisfit5290



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canon Compliant, F/M, Grief/Mourning, The X-Files Revival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 12:54:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5417804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlemisfit5290/pseuds/littlemisfit5290
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens after Mulder says "I'm here."</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'm Here

“I’m here,” he says, gravelly voiced. 

Swallowing hard he peers through the word etched glass inlayed in the solid, locked doors. He hates this wing. Not that he’s had positive associations with other parts of this hospital. But the intensive care unit in particular reeks to him of comas and cancer and the smoking man’s fucking Morleys. 

He takes small comfort that the black lunged bastard’s not responsible for this nightmare. But then again, who can know for sure. The hellish scenario he’s looking in on now is certainly worthy of him.  
   
She hangs up the phone and gets to her feet. Using the handrail on the bed for support. She's shaky, looking smaller than usual to him even while wearing her heeled boots. Ever the professional she swipes tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. Takes a steadying breath as Mulder's cleared to enter the unit.  
   
“I snagged some flowers from a jock with a sprained ankle but I had to leave them at the desk this time,” he deadpans before his face goes solemn along with her’s. Tears fill Scully’s eyes again but she’ll be damned if she lets them fall.  
   
Mulder only tears his eyes away from her’s to see Maggie. Really see her, for what has to be the first time in over a decade. She’s frail, intubated. The layers of blankets on the bed look to be smothering her. He wonders if it would be bad approved visitor form to remove the top layer of grey fleece from her bed, drape it around his partner’s trembling shoulders.   
   
“I’m fine, Mulder.”  
   
“Scully-“, he sighs. Slipping his suit coat off he goes to put it around her, thinks it's the gentlemanly/partnerly thing to do. He recoils after she does.  
   
“I said I’m fine, I’m not cold,” Scully insists. When an overhead draft betrays her she bites her lip, wraps her arms tightly around herself.   
   
“Look Scully, I just-“  
   
“Mulder, I know I asked you here. I know I called when she was admitted but now-“  
   
“Now what? You want me to just walk out?” he scoffs, tossing his jacket on a nearby chair as her eyes flick up, defiantly meet his. She’s not crumbling. Not here, not now when it’d be that easy. Dutiful daughters don’t crumble. Not even in the arms of her partner as she and him stand at her failing mother’s bedside.  
   
“I have things I need to take care of, Mulder. I need to contact her lawyer, Charlie. Bill. The hospice Father McCue recommended to us.”  
   
“Scully…”  
   
His eyes watering now Mulder sighs, steps closer.  
   
“I can help you out with the arrangements. I can make phone calls, shitty coffee, whatever you need.”  
   
“It’s my responsibility, Mulder. As her primary physician, her caregiver-“  
   
“You’ve done all you can for her, Scully,” he says softly.   
   
Head still bowed she shakes her head.   
   
“It wasn’t enough though. I…I thought, I thought I could make her better,” she chokes out, sounding and feeling like the kid in the woods that tried and failed to will a dying snake to live.   
   
“After the first stroke I told her, I promised her that I’d help her get-“  
   
“Scully, you’re a brilliant doctor but you’re not a miracle worker. Deep down you know there’s nothing more you could’ve…”  
   
Trailing off when her shoulders shake, this time more violently, Mulder sighs, reaches to pull her close. Feeling grateful when she doesn't pull away.  
   
“Your mom was an amazing woman, Scully. She was kind, she was strong. She even made my damn first name sound normal.”  
   
Eliciting a laugh that vibrates through his shirt, Mulder smiles, holds Scully tighter as she reaches up, slips her arms up and behind his neck.   
   
“You did everything you could for her. Please tell me that you believe that.”  
   
“I believe what you said to me that night,” she chokes out after a beat.  
   
“Scully there were a lot of nights.”  
   
"It was in the motel. After we went on the run,” she says, sniffing back tears as she meets his gaze.  
   
“Was it the one with the peeling wallpaper or with the fridge that blew out hot air?”  
   
“Mulder…”, she groaned.  
   
“I’m sorry but that fridge was an X-File unto itself.”  
   
“And undoubtedly emblazoned in that eidetic memory of yours."  
   
“You know what else is emblazoned there, Scully?” he asks, getting a curious frown.  
   
“Our conversation that night in Roswell,” he says solemnly as fresh tears spring to her eyes.   
   
“The dead aren’t lost to us. They speak to us as part of something greater than us.”  
   
Drawn back to the warmth of his chest again, Scully sighs, shuts her eyes as he rubs her back.  
   
“Do we still believe the same thing, Scully?” he asks gently as she slides her hand down from the nape of his neck. Gripping her cross between two fingers she brings the gold symbol to her lips.   
   
“She gave me this, you know. I was fifteen.”  
   
“It was for your birthday,” Mulder says gruffly as she backs up, looks up in surprise.  
   
“Yeah. Did she-"  
   
Nodding solemnly, Mulder frowns, the overhead light and his eyes catching a metallic object hanging from Scully’s pocket.  
   
“What’s-“  
   
Softly smiling she takes hold of a silver chain, strung with a blue oval-shaped pendant.  
   
“She gave this to me, too. My father gave it to her. I’d always sneak it out of her jewelry box when Ahab was away."  
   
“Agent Scully, you thief,” Mulder teases, earning a soft smile that soon fades.  
   
“She told me last night, while they were prepping her for surgery, that she could finally trust me with it now."  
   
Nodding sadly, right arm still around Scully's shoulders, Mulder turns to reach for Maggie’s hand. Careful to avoid the IV tube taped to the back of it.  
   
“She trusted me to keep your necklace, Scully. She trusted me to find you, to keep you safe.”  
   
“Mulder…”  
   
Tear sliding down his cheek Mulder bows his head.   
   
“I know I broke her trust, Scully. I know that you can take care of yourself. That you have been the past eight months. But I told her that I...I would-“  
   
Moving in front of him Scully reaches up, thumbs the moisture from his cheek as she shakes her head. 

Seeing his tears is her undoing and Mulder knows it, clings onto her as she clutches at him. Wrapping one arm around his middle, her other slides up his chest, the pendant draped between her fingers.   
   
Cheek pressed to his chest Scully cries, feeling secure in doing so while his chin is resting on top of her head.  
   
“You’re here now though, Mulder. Thank God. You’re here now.”  
 

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this after the first trailer for the revival was released, and finished it after seeing the recent still of Scully in Mulder's arms. You know, the heartbreaking one.
> 
>  
> 
> This is my first ever X-Files/MSR fic. Please be gentle with me, folks.


End file.
